>> and it became one all day long, and let me give you a late development here, larry. majority senate leader harry reid who was reported to be undecided for most of the day, just over an hour ago declared he supports ben bernanke's confirmation that could help the fed chairman. a vote will be scheduled for late next week and is expected to be close. the uncertainty got new momentum today when two democratic senators including barbara boxer and russ feingold declared their opposition. cnbc contacting all 100 senators and as responses from more than half of the senate. here are the totals, 23 saying yes, 12 saying no, undecided, 17. and here's the split by party. you can see republicans are just about evenly divided, democrats very much undecided or yes. and independents, as you know, bernie sanders are saying no, liberman saying yes. cnbc is betting that don kohn

will take over until a permanent replacement can be decided by the senate. 51 votes to be confirmed. every democratic loss needs a republican gain for bernanke to overcome that filibuster. and larry, by our count, 22% of senators will vote no on bernanke, but if a senator is up for reelection,ñi that rises to 36%. if you think this ain't political, you've got another thing coming -- >> of course it's political. it's the people's money, for heaven sakes. >> absolutely. >> and bernanke's been devaluing it. it has a lot to do, i think, with the scott brown -- a misinterpretation. because actually attacking banks and bank pabailouts was not a b issue according to the massachusetts papers. you're going to help me with this story. because the aig documents are now playing a huge role in this bernanke story. and we need to explore that and various political rumors. steve liesman, stay right here. don't move an inch.

now, here's my money politics message for this evening. i have no doubt that uncertainty over ben bernanke hurt the market today. markets generally dislike uncertainty, but i particularly don't think he has that big market following. and overwhelming amount of investors agree that john taylor's rule should have been followed by bernanke and greenspan from 2002 to 2005. the fed was too loose for too long. and bernanke must bear the blame. the bubble up inflation of housing, oil, and other commodity-type assets ultimately led to the disaster in the financial system and the economy. and in a regulatory sense, mr. bernanke was also asleep at the wheel. so if bernanke has to withdraw his reconfirmation, i say so be it. and i also say if he cannot get truly bipartisan support, he should withdrawal. you can't run the fed unless you have bipartisan support.

35 or 40 ney votes is a disaster. paul volcker who has recently emerged again could conceivably step in for a couple of years and maybe the volcker idea rattles stocks even more than bernanke stepping down. you know why? well, unlike bernanke, volcker is a hard money king dollar central banker. probably the greatest central banker in our recent history. now, i do not agree with paul's regulatory schemes to try to turn the clock back 30 or 35 years on banks. but, i do think he could be the best guy to get us out of this monetary mess of an exploding fed balance sheet and ultra easy interest rates and money creation. and if you don't think mr. volcker at age 82 has the energy, you might want to think again because he's getting remarried. and i love that story. and by the way, obama's bank bashing and taxing has had a devastating effect on stocks.

jpmorgan and bank of america off 12% just this week. and that led everything else down. that was the big story in the stock market. you know what? attacking banks, you're attacking the economy. attack the economy, you're attacking stocks. banks aren't the enemy, they should be part of the solution. but remove the too big to fail, put some free market discipline back into the banking system. i don't believe any of obama's tax attack on banks or the regulatory scheme is going to pass the senate. the idea of limiting banks right now is a very bad idea, especially if they're regaining health. let's not forget in the stock market, you have a very steep upward sloping treasury curve. that is bullish for banks. you buy money near zero and you can loan it out at 3% or 4% risk-free. let's not react to this story. i don't think the bank legislation is going to go through.

and as ace economist wrote this week, the index of leading indicators is booming. and both short-term funding and high-yield spreads have utterly collapsed. these are great leading indicator positives for the economy. another positive. strong profits. now, they may have already been discounted. but the fact is, 25% profits growth this year is still a positive for stocks and a revival of business. now, there's the modest credit tightening by china. but, my argument is that credit tightening is just that. it is modest. i don't want to react to that either. on the other hand, there are issues. if we do hit a tax wall next year, 2011, that's going to be a big problem for stocks in 2010. we have, by the way, later in this program, a blue dog democrat who says extend the bush tax cuts. now, that would really be bullish. and politically, i still believe

scott brown's incredible victory in massachusetts, a low-tax, small government populism victory that has knocked obama care off the table is going to turn out to be a very bullish political and policy event even though right now the stock market is on jitters and with great uncertainty about what washington is doing to it. but i would say this, after a rough week, maybe folks should think about buying stocks on this correction dip. as for mr. obama and his team, i've just given up hope. they just don't get it. you know what? instead of bashing banks, americans want more money in their pockets. they don't want left wing populism, punishment for banks, or successful earners. a recent poll shows 77% of investors think obama is anti-business and that is a problem for the stock market and economic confidence. the massachusetts exit polls show that taxes and putting more money in people's pockets and

better job creation and the health care, those were the key issues, not some kind of revolt against the banks that have paid down their t.a.r.p. so i look at this week's stock market. yeah, it was ñrrough, tremendou assault on banks, that helped lead the market down. the china credit situation played a little bit of a role. profits came in pretty darn good, but probably all in the market. so we need some more good news there. but on the whole, i wouldn't panic. i don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. i am not ready to call the turn in stocks downward. i just don't believe it. corrections come and go. now, let's get some much more information on the çódetails of this market problem. we've got a drill down on what's going on. it was the worst week for stocks since last winter. cnbc's bob pisani is going to help us with a full rundown of this week's trading. hello, bob. >> reporter: hi, larry. ugh as in ugly. that's the best way to describe this week. the most important thing from a trader's point of view, big pick-up in volatility and a big

pick-up in put buying. traders look for protection. why? look at the triple whammy, uncertainty over china, uncertainty with banks with mr. obama's speech, uncertainty over whether mr. bernanke was going to be reconfirmed. a little too much for everybody. markets dropped noticeably, and the most important thing, 5% off of the highs that we hit on monday for the s&p 500. that's a rather noticeable drop here. take a look at the vix, the volatility index intraday, we had a 60% move to the up side. why did that happen? remember, larry, six months traders have not made any money shorting the market. now, with all of this uncertainty, they smell they can make money, going short, makes a little bit of sense. look at the big effect that the china statement or rather the implication that china might raise interest rates had some of the big names this week. commodity stocks dropped dramatically, alcoa was down, one of the few earnings disappointments we had in the

last few weeks. mr. obama's speech on bank regulates was met with a large selloff in the banks. double digit declines in jpmorgan, morgan stanley, suntrust, though and the regional banks on the up side, would not be affected by mr. obama's proposal. finally the market's taken on a very decidedly defensive tone. names in the black this week, but they were all defensive stocks. stocks like kroger, like kellogg's, and colgate. the industrial average down 4.2%, the worst showing since the march bottom. >> thank you, robert. good rundown. we've got ourselves a bull, we've got ourselves a bear. on the positive side, zachary and michael, author of "financial armageddon," as well as the blog of the same name. and we have out there cnbc contributor don loskin. >> i love that introduction,

we've got the bull, the bear, we've got out there. >> you're out there, buddy. good to see everybody here. let's put our cards on the table. bull or bear, zach, you first. >> well, definitely both. >> why? >> just give me your main bullish thought. >> first of all, the market's been prepped to pull back 5% or 10% since october. the news triggered it, but i don't think the news is the cause of it because the news is quite good, 92% of the s&p 500 have reported this week, 78% of beat, those are good earnings. you've got extremely positive global growth and i like the fact we've got a pullback because it gives you a rationability to get into a market. >> a lot of jitters about china credit tightening. to me it looked modest and quite appropriate. the chinese yuan is probably going to appreciate as part of their firming up in money and credit. how big of a negative is that for the market? >> you know, at every single point for the past six years, i could have been on this program or any cnbc program and the tenner of the discussion about

china has been, oh, my god, it's now going to come to an end. oh, my god, they're tightening, it's going to collapse. soft landing, hard landing, bad landing. and i think china is underestimated. there may be a point in time where the skeptics prove to be correct, but now is not that time. >> we don't like them on human rights and senscensorship. >> and the moral and ethical difficulties of interest accounting with an economy of size and scope that we cannot coerce that has different values than our own is going to be one of the great challenges for politics and economics in the next -- >> very well put. all right, it is a pleasure to see you back. and i want to hear your armageddon bearish view in short. >> where do i start, larry? so many points we can bring up. >> come on, we've had a fabulous run. and zachary said, corrections come and go, this baby is overdue. >> we've had a fabulous run. that's the key. all the news, the good news coming in is in the market. you've had good news on terms of earnings.

we have had a rebound, good news in terms of investors coming into the market. but in reality, now, you have high -- very strong bullish sentiment. we've seen that from small investors this week, data on that, we also saw the institutional investors extremely bullish. the kind of readings we saw in 2007 before the market peek pea out. more risk, up until this point people have been taking on risk thinking it's not the time to be worried about it. this week, i think we introduced political risk, i think we're going to see more elements of -- >> you don't mean obama, do you? >> no, no -- >> what are you thinking about here? can you qualify that for me? because i'm a babe in the political woods and i'd like to hear your take on this. >> well, of i have a different read on it. i don't think it was a political reaction per se, i think it was a populous reaction. >> i thought it was a dumb as dirt reaction. but go ahead. >> you can say what you like -- >> and the stocks -- all right, stocks aren't always infallible in their judgment, but they sure

cratered on the news of this bank attack. >> they've been ignoring what's been going on -- >> it's like the joint chiefs is attacking general patton. we needed patton to win, don't we need banks to win the economic war? >> that's been the argument of obama and the administration for a year now. but the disconnect between main street and wall street has gotten wider and wider. saying wait a minute, you're ignoring us, we want you to do something about us on main street. and i think that is the background issue. >> patton did have a commanding general. just to be clear. >> i know, but the commanding general for all of -- eisenhower. ike would tell him to obey orders, and patton would do what he wanted. it is a pleasure to see you. i want to know, give me a quickie, okay, give me a quickie on bernanke who may not last the weekend and give me a quickie on

the obama bank attack. how big of a factor -- both of them -- how big of factors were they in this week's big selloff? >> i think they're that major factor. however, stocks were very overpriced, over bullish coming in. an accident waiting to happen. this turned out to be the ka catalyst. why did it happen right here right now? why all of a sudden did these democrats turn against bernanke? why all of a sudden does the obama administration bring up paul volcker whom it's been ignoring for the last year and come up with the celebrated two paragraphs of turning the banks back to the condition they were in in 1950. why now? it's because the scott brown victory is being completely misinterpreted as a populous victory. last night, i went on scott brown's campaign website. i read every single word on it. there was not one word, not one attacking wall street. when the bank tax was announced last week, he defended wall street against -- it was coakley who was all over the fat cat

bankers. this guy is a reagan-esque tax cutter. he knows there is no dichotomy between wall street and main street. >> and more money in their pockets through lower taxes. that's one of the key reasons they oppose the big obama care bill. this is a complete misread by mr. obama and his team. they have a total political -- but they're going go down in the polls more and more because they're on the wrong side of these issues. folks want to get well economically. they're not interested in killing their next door banker. >> i know they're not. but they see the stock market up 70% in 310 days and say, okay, we can risk upsetting the apple cart a little bit because things look pretty good. >> you don't sound that concerned. >> well, look how they're playing with fire with ben bernanke. ben bernanke is the one guy -- he saved the world 18 months ago.

no good deed goes unpunished. >> he broke the window and then he repaired it. is that what you're telling me? >> that was the on the job training that no one else in america has. we cannot afford to bring some rookie in and including an 85-year-old rookie named paul volcker. >> 82 -- don't give him 85. at that age there's a big difference. can i ask my bear. what do you think about paul volcker taking over the fed? if bernanke can't get it done politically, what do you think about volcker? he believes in hard money, the king dollar. i'll think much of his 1950s regulatory pains, but is he the guy to get us out of this monetary mess created by bernanke? >> i think a man like him is the guy. but i don't think he's there. i don't think the political will is there. i think the fed has become very politicized, especially over the course of the past year. and i think he'd still be

tilting at windmills despite his best intention. >> go ahead, zach, sorry. >> i am curious how you can rail against the policies of the obama administration, which are paul volcker. >> i can. >> and be supportive of paul volcker as fed chairman. what volcker is trying to say is the proprietary trading on the part of banks like goldman sachs and morgan stanley in his view and in the view of the administration right now creates a conflict of interest between -- >> he is incorrect. he is incorrect. that had nothing to do with -- >> that's fair. >> loan pools, bad mortgage pools, bad government policies supporting those pools. the one policy i have total 100% confidence in is paul volcker. that guy was around in the '80s. i worked for reagan, it was painful, but it worked. we have a mess, zach. i want to ask you, you're a bull, tell me what a bull does right here. you've got bad vibes coming off wall street and the stock market. what do you do here? >> you look at the political

realities as noise, not has substance. and i'm sure on this we'll disagree. and it's going to be very noisy this year and in a populous sense. and you've got to put that to one side and look at the fundamentals of what's going on and what they are globally. i think the noise is going to be particularly distracting coming î9=5e9ñ i don't believe you invest in the stock market right now because the american economy. i believe you invest right now because of the global economy in spite of what's going on in the united states not because of it. that's a real change in mind set. i still think any investment that is tied to the growth of china is a good investment. >> michael, as said today, the leading indicators are strong, all the credit spreads are narrowing, the funding costs are very low because of all of this cheap money. are you going to ignore that stuff? you're going to have 4% mini boom this year in 2010. even going to get some job creation, profits up 25%. what's wrong with that? >> larry, you know when we last saw all that? the spring of 2007.

remember that? >> i do. i do. i do. i was a bull, you were a bear, and you were right. i was looking good for a while there, a good five-year run. but it kind of cratered on me. the clock passes 12:00 twice a day, that's why i'm asking, how bearish are you? >> i think everybody held on, american population, businesses, everybody held on in hopes that we would recover. there's a lot less resiliency in the system, there's a lot less resources available and next big bad wave of the economy's going to hit. >> favorite investment or whatever. >> cash is king, short-term bonds, i think the dollar's got quite a ways to go here as a trade still. back in november, like this, still like it. >> all right. don, favorite investment strategy, you've heard our bear and our zachary bull. where are you coming out? >> i think you want to buy gold on this dip. and the reason why is because

even if bernanke isn't reappointed, whoever they're going to put in his place, it's not going to be a hawk like paul volcker, it's going to be a dove like janet yelen. keep interest rating -- >> easier than -- >> he's just a bernanke light. no problem. but don't forget, larry, all those great economic conditions that you and mike dart are celebrating are because of the posture that the fed is in. you can't have it both ways. you can't want paul volcker and still be a bull on the economy for those reasons. >> i do think the free market has corrected in the business sector and deleveraging in the consumer sector. i do think profits are improving, but i do agree with you. it is going to take a master mind maestro to the tenth power to pilot us through a fed exit strategy and the tax hike threats out there, which could really do a lot of damage to the stock market in the second half of this year. i acknowledge those policy

risks. we've got to get out of here, gentlemen, thank you very much on a friday night. zachary carrabelle, coming up on the kudlow report, the support for ben bernanke is dropping faster than the value of the dollar. steve liesman is going to tell us if mr. bernanke can survive the weekend. you're watching cnbc first in business worldwide.

is ben bernanke going to st the weekend before he's forced to withdrawal because he can't get the 60 votes to pass? let's talk some more about this, what could be a very pivotal event and may have impacted the lower stock market today. we have columnist jimmy and steve liesman has come back to help us out some more.

jimmy p., you probably heard the opening report. and i want to ask if you have anything different. where do you come out on this? give me your basic take. >> my take is that if you would have asked me at 3:00 this afternoon, i would have said i didn't think he could last through the weekend. i think reid coming out in favor of bernanke helps. but look who is really in favor of bernanke right now. we have harry reid who is a dead duck, and judd gregg who is also a lame duck. they care more about their future, if they're running this year, they're very anti-bernanke. if he can make it past the state of the union, i think he's okay. i don't know if he can make it all the way to the state of the union address. >> jimmy p., senator corker, first he was for him, then rumors he was undecided. might be tilting against. and i want to raise this -- >> no, no, larry, he's for him.

>> he's back -- i beg your pardon. >> he called me today to say -- >> now, jimmy, i want to get both of you in this, aig not monetary policy, it seems like aig and the lousy job that the fed did with the relations where they didn't -- they asked aig not to disclose all of the information of the bailout. i don't want to get into the aig weeds, but that seems like a big deal to the republicans, jimmy. >> i think aig may be the proported reason. but i think the real big reason, if you go out the 202 area code and talk to republicans and conservatives, bernanke is not only highly unpopular, there's growing belief that the federal reserve we don't even need a federal reserve. it is written a tea party movement, that anti-fed, gives them a reason. but if you talk to conservatives, activists, they don't think we need a fed much less have ben bernanke in charge of the fed. >> steve, what about this?

bernanke has become -- whether he deserves this or not, he's become the face of the bailouts, the face of t.a.r.p. and a lot of people say he's money's too easy. what's your analysis? is this a populous revolt? did bernanke get hurt by the election in massachusetts? >> i think so. and i think that's ironic. another irony, many weekends trying to save the world, he's now hoping that someone spends the weekend trying to save his confirmation. i think the issue right now is it comes from all sides. i think that's what worries wall street, right now. i know how you feel about ben bernanke and his policy. i don't believe that many on wall street agree with you in the sense there's no majority for dramatic change in policy. they want the fed, for example, to become tighter. my guess is, if they appointed somebody who was a hard money guy who was going to come dm and say we're going to withdraw stimulus right now, i think the market would take that very

badly. >> i have this perverse view. i have this perverse view because what you said may be right that paul volcker who was front and center all week, and people may be wondering, maybe volcker is going to step in and take bernanke's job, and he's that much harder money king dollar guy linking to gold from the 1980s. that might have scared the stock market in the short run. >> i think ultimately if the stock market feels like the prevailing win is for tighter money, harder money, that the stock market is going to retreat on that, which is really a shame because of the things this economy had going for it, the stock market was that real green chute. and between the bank regulations put forward by president obama and his effort to steer bernanke through the senate. ultimately, where was the president when it came to bernanke, these are two strikes against obama when it comes to the economy. >> but jimmy p., in the longer term, price stability, and a stable value of money is very good for stocks because inflation is the cruellest tax

of all. and volcker had to go through this crucible. he had some trouble back in 1983. so i want to ask you, is this volcker stuff crazy? look, what happens? say bernanke for argument's sake doesn't make it. what happens? they're not going to give it to don kohn, are they? >> listen -- >> not going to be david malpass, not going to be steve forbes. >> maybe glenn hubbard up in columbia. >> whatever, i'm just saying volcker seems like the obvious guy. i know he's 82, but he's a spritely 82 because he's going to get remarried and that will give him spriteliness. >> volcker is a flavor of the month. i don't think this administration wants him at treasury. i don't think they want him at the fed. they're liberal democrat base. they do not want his hard money and cancellation, budget deficit policies. they don't want that. >> i've got to get out of here. >> who's the character who can

bringing bunning and sanders together. >> ben bernanke. >> hands aren't dirty from the 2000 to 2006 -- >> i will tell you -- >> and get bipartisan support, he can count on one hand the number of times -- >> not even that. >> even if bernanke got 60 votes for closure, if he has 40 nee votes, that's terrible. he needs to get -- >> he needs to get 70 votes. >> at a minimum. and he needs to think about that this weekend. steve liesman, thank you, as always. now, we're going to have more debates on the merits of this. he wants bernanke in office, peter navara says no way jose, stay with the kudlow report. we are going to talk more about the bernanke factor and the stock market and the face of the value of money and inflation. at&t's 3g network

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bernanke or not bernanke, that's the question. we've got peter navera. gentlemen, this has to be lightning round. as fast as you can say ben bernanke might be out of a job. let me get your lightning defense. >> well, what i think we're looking at is populism run amuck. i mean take bernanke, tim geithner, hank paulson, the counter parts around the world. look at what was happening in the latter part of 2008 and realize we were heading over the

edge of the precibous into the as by. now that we're on the way to recovery, we want to throw this guy out? let me tell you what worries me. i'm wondering about foreign investors who are looking at the congress and the administration, flailing around, getting nothing done and deciding to throw out the guy who saved the world. >> all right. >> they're going to ask themselves whether we've lost our mind. >> peter, if i break the window and come back and fix it, that doesn't seem like -- >> that's the first strike. he caused the bubble as he was on the fed as governor and then as the chairman. so what if he fixed it? number two, his godzilla balance sheet is setting us up for inflation. number three, larry, most important. we need somebody with the backbone to stop accommodating the fiscal policy of the obama administration and those budget

deficits. destimulate i think somebody said. >> destimulate. >> we need -- >> do we need paul volcker to come back from -- i won't say the grave, but do we need him? >> that's an interesting question. one other thing, though, because i know time is tight. barbara boxer is going to be the canary in the coal mine. i think bernanke's dead because boxer came out -- let me say why. it's a scott brown effect. i'm on the ground here in california. boxer is not that popular. she's generally viewed as very shrill. she's got a guy running against her on a scott brown platform. she's looking right behind her at this. and with her going there, that tells me that the senate -- the people who are up there for reelection, they're not going to go for bernanke. >> lyle, you served under paul volcker, if i'm not mistaken and he did an awfully good job and i've given you kudos for that period, as well. what's wrong with that, lyle? >> first, paul is up in years. and larry, you may not have

reached that age yet, but when you get to be my age and paul's, you realize you don't have the energy and the stamina. the fed chairmanship is a man-killing job. i have great admiration for paul. >> he looks like he could dunk right now against shaquille o'neal and he's got a new wife. >> he's getting remarried, new life and energy. and, you know what? the kohn and some of the younger guys can do the heavy lifting. lyle, let me ask you a serious question. you've made your case, i hear you. investment and confidence in general, i don't agree, but you've made your case. what -- if bernanke cannot command a bipartisan vote, i think that's a big problem for any fed chairman. i mean paul volcker had the worst, but only 16 nee votes back in '83, lyle. that's nothing, if bernanke gets 35 nee votes, lyle, i think that's a disaster. >> i agree, that's a problem, larry. i think bernanke could overcome it over time. but early on, it would be a

problem. >> all right. >> 70% of the american people don't like the guy and don't have confidence in the guy. let's get him out of there. >> all right. that's it. thank you very much, gentlemen. coming up. it's been a bad week for mr. obama. first he loses the coveted kennedy senate seat and now dems are fleeing from his fed head reappointment. and what will next week bring after bank bashing crushed the stock market? we're going to review the events and have a little discussion right here on the kudlow report. stay with us. ( inspiring music playing ) someday, the driver will get to choose

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a bad week for investors, but nothing compared to what happened to president obama. he had a tough one too. and john harwood has the full story. hello, john. >> reporter: larry, after one full year in office, president obama has arrived at the first genuine moment of crisis for his administration with that stunning special election in massachusetts with a republican winning the seat formally held by the late edward kennedy. that immediately raised questions about the president's agenda. heçó responded with a bank initiative to limit the size and scope of activities that some of the nation's largest banks. it was controversial even within his economic team, an idea pushed by paul volcker, the former fed chairman, but not by tim geithner, the treasury secretary and national economic

council director larry summers. today the president was out in the state of ohio with a campaign-style appearance assuring average americans he's going to keep fighting for them. >> so long as i have some breath in me, so long as i have the privilege of serving as your president, i will not stop fighting for you. i will take my -- >> but of course, it's a question now of definition, how exactly barack obama is going to fight for average americans. what is the size of his agenda? is his health care plan scaled back? what about other things he's pushing like energy policy and financial regulation. a lot of drama in washington's going to unfold over the next several weeks, larry, including at the president's state of the union address next week. >> all right, john harwood. let's talk some more about the obama meltdown next week. mark wall. the "wall street journal's"

steve moore, and mark walsh, your guy's imploding on a minutely and daily basis. and here's the amazing thing. the clear message coming out of the scott brown victory in massachusetts was that people want to keep more of their own money. that's what they want in order to get jobs. and here's obama today still pushing the obama care health care plan which they hated in massachusetts. and he's still pushing bank bashing. this guy is so off message, i can't even find him on the political screen. >> well, i respectfully but forcefully disagree on how you interpret scott brown's election. senator-elect scott brown is an empty vessel. he's from west nowhere'sville state center. he runs on nothing. martha coakley lost that race and she was a flawed candidate. scott brown won that election on one phrase and one phrase only when he said it's the people's

seat not ted kennedy's. the message, i would say you've overemphasized the message massachusetts sent. >> you look at these polls. health care was the biggest issue, then comes tax cuts, jobs, and the economy, steve. in fact, punishing banks, sending the u.s. marines to root out bad bankers on wall street was not on the radar screen. people want to keep more of their money. they want less government, and they want more jobs. steve moore, what's the take on obama? this guy -- listen to mark walsh. what's your response to mark walsh. i've never heard such a defense. >> he doesn't understand what brown ran on was the theme of change. this was exactly the theme that barack obama ran on so successfully last year and you know what's happened over the last year? the american people have looked at the change that barack obama has brought and they don't like it too much. it's not working too well. the jobs aren't there, the economy isn't performing as well as people had expected. and so it's interesting how brown basically stole the

rhetoric of obama. i agree with you, larry, entirely. everything that barack obama has done in response to this election result has been -- has been like he's politically tone deaf. not just -- >> the stock market gave him one of the great cheers of all time. he bashed the banks and stocks hemorrhaged, the worst since last winter as the depths of the meltdown. how can you ignore that? this is another vote. listen, scott brown was a vote against obama. the stock market was a huge vote against obama this week. >> well, i would argue that it's not -- i'm not ignoring it, but you may argue i'm putting a little 202 area code spin on this, but i would suggest this. the stock market is racketing to the fact that the american people and the american economy are not proven to the world that we will fix what set us off this horrible depression. so we have -- we have to show them that we're prepared to deal with our problems. and that means making banks no too big to fail. and bringing back jobs. >> you know what? you've diagnosed the problem and i couldn't agree more, but --

>> nobody cares about -- >> but the point is the reforms people want, they want reforms in the legal system, the medical malpractice system, the tax system -- they don't believe in tax -- >> they want jobs and growth and limited government. >> you are making -- now you're making my case. because the health care plan in massachusetts, which by the way, the right wing -- >> look, come on, guys. people want more money in their pockets. >> that's right. >> that is what they want. and obama is not talking about that. and on top of everything else, steve, the whole economics operation is splintering and falling apart. geithner and summers were gw against this whole bank attack thing. paul volcker wants to turn the clock back 50 years, you can't do it. he doesn't know anything about regulatory policy. >> the story of this week is that economic populism has not worked for barack obama. it has backfired on him, that's why the numbers are so poor in the stock market and democratic polls right now.

>> larry, people want a job more than money in their pocket. >> no, they want both. don't you understand? they go hand-in-hand. >> absolutely. >> mark walsh, you are a capitalist and you have to teach obama to be a capitalist. you know why? because it's the best path to prosperity. thank you very much, gentlemen. coming up, not all doom and gloom out of washington. we've got a congressman who understands the scott brown story because this democrat wants to extend the bush tax cuts. now, that is my kind of democrat. and i think coming up, we don't have -- we don't have melissa -- keep it right here with the kudlow report. these are the building blocks of a perfect girls' weekend.

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now, here comes some scott brown free market capitalism, extend the bush tax cuts and it's a democrat from staten island who co-signed this letter to his colleagues yesterday in an act of extraordinary bravery. mike, this was such a great story. did your caucus and your leadership come at you? did they send, you know, former navy seals and black ops guys to knock you off? what are you doing here? >> no, larry, it's tough in washington, but not that tough. what we're doing together with colleagues, we're sending a

letter to the president saying that right now as our country's still in the throes of this terrible recession, though we're starting to come out of it a little bit, if we were to raise taxes now, it would be like telling our beloved jets on sunday they can't use their running game. they would fail and our economy would fail, as well. this is not the time to raise taxes. >> well, i think your analysis is right, my friend. and i want to ask you açó coupl of quick thoughts on this. first of all, are you getting any republican help? because i had not heard them. you're like following the scott brown formula. you've learned more than the leadership of the gop that i have not yet heard. the republicans helping you to extend the bush tax cuts? >> well, we just started to circulate the letter amongst our colleagues, and we should have responses in by next week. so we should know. but you know, i hate to always call this a democrat or republican idea. you know, as laguardia said in new york, there's not a republican or democratic way to pick up the trash, and the right way to fix our economy is not to

tax now because people need the money that they have to spend it, to invest small businesses. so that we can make sure that we can get out of this recession. because even in your prior discussion and everyone talked about what the american people want. what the american people want is jobs because that means that by working hard they can make sure they have the american dream, which is you work hard, make a better life for your children. and right now that's being questioned. >> i think they want to keep more of what they earn too. i think it's come down to that. let me ask you this. what about your democratic colleagues? blue dogs or otherwise, mike. any support there? >> well, i'm partnering in this effort with bobby bright from alabama. i'm sure we'll get support from others. i'm a member of the new democratic coalition, who are the centrist -- >> i think you need to get a silver cross or something of bravery. your analysis is right, but your

political bravery is phenomenal, michael mcmahon from staten island, new york. thank you for helping us tonight on the program. and i hope you win. extend the bush tax cuts and then lower tax rates across the board. jfk did it, reagan did it, it'll work again if we could get it through. stay with us. i'll be right back. what are you doing...? calling chase sapphire, seeing if we have enough points to stay longer. now? you don't have enough time... and you have to push all those buttons... no buttons, someone answers every time. yeah, right... bet you a massage... yeah, ok. hi, julie... i have a question about my points. hi, what button do i press for a massage? hello? new chase sapphire... you call. we answer. no waiting. just press right here... go to chase.com/sapphire. chase what matters.

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here's a democrat, mike mcmahon gets, president obama

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live from the nasdaq market site, this is "fast money." stocks hounded this week with the "fast money," we'll show you how to turn a profit in good and bad markets. we've got all angles tonight. steve liesman is back at cnbc headquarters. we're working a developing story. bernanke's confirmation fight. brian kelly, meantime, working the pop desk. running the numbers on whether this week was the start of the correction everyone was waiting for. and right here, the fastest gang in town with your ways to protect profit come monday morning. but let's start with the controversy. hitting the markets right now, steve liesman, give us the latest. >> melissa, thanks very much. what we have is a statement from harry reid's office that he expects a vote later this week. i'm sorry, next week. despite the fact that everybody expected one to happen today or early next week. and we have had a running count, melissa, that we've called all 100 senators, we have responses from more than half.

and we can show you what the numbers show is that about 22 senators say they will confirm, i don't know if they have those full screens in the back. 22 senators say yes, no and undecided is 12 and 16. the party breakdown is interesting. what you find is that you find pretty split republicans, 7 to 7, and democrats 10-4. what we expect 10 to 15 democrats are expected to vote no. you're going to need a republican to replace every democrat on the yes side. here's the math you have to figure out. 60 votes to overcome the filibuster, 51 votes to confirm. they're going to need two days to file the closure vote to get to the vote on the floor. and it is dicey at this point. we had expected, we thought the leadership had been saying that they had the votes. and this morning they told us they weren't sure. two senators feingold and boxer saying they would oppose bernanke. melissa? >> if not bernanke, then who? >> that's a